Tighter margins threaten dairy farm incomes

IRISH dairy farmers are on course for an 8.6% fall in their net profit margin this year, even when direct payments are included, predicted researcher Billy Fingleton, when IFA launched their Milk Price and Dairy Income Campaign at the Teagasc Conference Centre in Moorepark, Co Cork last Monday.

Farmers must become more efficient and increase their scale of operation to maintain incomes which are threatened by this year’s 1c per litre cut in net margin and the other effects of the CAP Mid Term Review, said Mr Fingleton.

But he was relatively confident about the prospects for Irish milk producers, predicting they will withstand the changes in the CAP better than counterparts in other EU countries, and noting the strong commitment to dairying revealed in Glanbia’s major survey of suppliers.